The Apathetic Automaton
by Rogue-of-Fortune
Summary: A story of a depressed construct and its untimely end. Rated for disturbing imagery. R&R!


Disclaimer: I do not own Dungeons & Dragons. That is property of Wizards of the Coast. I do, however, own Havenstown, a place in my story. And I must state as a warning that if you want any details about the constructs in this story, check out the D&D Monster Manual II. Also, if the humor is hard to get, several ideas for it was taken from Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  
  
  
  
Once there was a town known as Havenstown, where magic was common and life went along easily. Well, easily for everyone except a poor little automaton that worked in the quarry. For this little construct life was a drag, spending day after day chiseling out rock to be used for buildings.  
  
The automaton was one out of many constructs working the stone that made the towers and archways of Havenstown. It was specifically known as a pulverizer. Pulverizers were simple robots (had to find a new word for construct) and needed little in the way of orders to do a job. They "saw" by using echolocation, which was all they needed to discern a wall or a human. The pulverizers had two simple tools to do their job. First, they would unleash a blast of focused sound to weaken the rock, which they would then break up with their drills. Of course they didn't carry the blocks, humans did that. The slaves at the quarry did a good amount of work, but they really had a lot more freedom than the automatons. Humans could err, constructs couldn't, and that was the expected situation.  
  
But the little construct mentioned earlier was unique. When it was assembled, some pranksters at the magic school decided to give this little robot sentience. Normally automatons couldn't think for themselves, having to follow simple orders. This one, however, could think and had developed a negative idea of its artificial life.  
  
"How awful life is!" thought the construct, drilling into the cold and lifeless stone wall before it. "How I hate to do the same thing day in and day out. I hate this wall. I hate this form. I hate the world! If only I could see. It isn't enough to just detect forms, I wish to really see. The humans here speak of these 'colors' they see when staring off into space. The 'yellow' of the 'sun', the 'green' of the 'grass', and the 'blue sky'. How it would please me to see this. I might not be able to change my status, but if I could only see as humans do I would be satisfied."  
  
The sun sank below the horizon, unseen by the ever-vigilant automatons of the quarry as they worked into the lonely night. The shift of slaves had changed, while the people of Havenstown fell into a deep rest. The only part of Havenstown that was still active was the pubs near the quarry. Inside were several wizards, teachers at the magic school, inebriating themselves with several pints of bitter as they tried to forget arcane experiments gone horribly wrong. One of the wizards, who had a burnt nose from a fouled up potion, had noticed what looked like several specks of gold and silver moving toward the quarry. He pondered this, then he thought better of it and went on to ponder the magic ability of a crumb of cheese.  
  
Meanwhile, the specks the wizard caught sight of continued on their dubious course to the quarry. The specks were actually a different type of construct, different from any that was known. These constructs looked like 4-legged spiders made of metal when seen at close range. When these construct spiders reached the quarry, they opened fire, shooting gargantuan bolts of lightning. Terror and pain spread everywhere. Most of the slaves ran while the brave few stayed back to fight. Their resistance was futile, as the ones who fought back were fried to a steaming crisp.  
  
After the slaves had run away or were dead, a few of these clockwork arachnids searched the remaining bodies for something. It is unclear what they were searching for, but after an unsuccessful examination, the gold and silver constructs continued to the stone wall to assault their target, the pulverizers at the quarry.  
  
The apathetic automaton had shut down, taking time to absorb what it sensed, being a dark tunnel out of the many in the Swiss-cheese-like wall. It sat there, doing nothing of importance, concentrating on its mortally wounded feelings. It sat in the cold dark tunnel, waiting for something. But what it was waiting for was anything but pleasurable.  
  
The spider-constructs reached the wall and started to fire bolt after bolt of electricity. The pulverizers at the quarry were blasted, scattering piles of semi-molten scrap metal everywhere.  
  
The depressed android (needed another word) in the tunnel continued to sulk until it discovered a few fragments of something unidentifiable. Upon reaching the tunnel mouth, a piercing bolt of lightning shot straight through the poor construct. It lay there, slowly losing its false consciousness as the magic that fueled its movements leaked out of its liquefying form. The final words that went through its metallic mind were "What happened?" as it became no more than bubbling slag metal.  
  
The next day, the people of Havenstown were surprised to discover that all of the quarry constructs had disappeared. However, they all thought better of it and made more automatons to work the stone. They also thought better of the several rotting corpses of the quarry slaves as they shoved bodies into a hole far out of town and buried them, then leaving to find new people to do forced labor at the quarry.  
  
The moral of this story is to help others with their problems. There are several people in the world with problems of their own, yet they go on unnoticed. It is unknown what these people could do if their problems are not solved. Of course, if the person in question is a stupid automaton that complains about everything in life, then the best solution is to hack it to pieces as soon as possible.  
  
  
  
I hope you all enjoyed that story. Please R&R! 


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